In the news

'Survivor' beats out "Cosby Show'

An estimated 25.6-million viewers nationwide watched CBS's Survivor: Marquesas finale Sunday, beating out viewership for NBC's Cosby Show reunion special, Fox's series finale for The X-Files and ABC's two-hour season finale for The Practice.

But the audience was still the smallest ever for a Survivor finale -- about half of the record-setting audience gathered for the first Survivor installment's conclusion in August 2000.

Locally, CBS's telecast of the Survivor: Marquesas finale was the most-watched show Sunday night, drawing about 19 percent of the available audience, or about 228,800 area TV households.

NBC's retrospective on The Cosby Show attracted about 17 percent of the available audience (201,800 households), while Fox's X-Files series finale drew nearly 12 percent of those watching TV (about 138,200 households) and ABC's The Practice season finale garnered about 11 percent of the available audience (127,100 households).

The local ranking came close to estimated national results, where the Cosby reunion drew 18.3-million viewers, The Practice attracted 13.2-million fans and The X-Files garnered 13-million viewers.

Drama Desk awards announced

NEW YORK -- Thoroughly Modern Millie was chosen best musical of the New York theater season, and The Goat and Metamorphoses tied for best play in awards given Sunday by the Drama Desk, an organization of theater journalists and critics.

Millie took five Drama Desk honors. Besides its best-musical award, the show received prizes for its star, Sutton Foster; featured-actress-musical, Harriet Harris; director-musical, Michael Mayer; and orchestrations, Doug Besterman and Ralph Burns.

The top acting awards in the play category went to Alan Bates for Fortune's Fool and Lindsay Duncan, who stars in the revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives. Featured acting awards went to Bates' co-star, Frank Langella, and to Katie Finneran of Noises Off. John Lithgow, a powerful gossip columnist in Sweet Smell of Success, won the actor-musical prize.